I must've expected too much from the game. In all honesty the game lacks imo not enough meat. There's a ton of little stuff to look at and see but not enough to actually do. The game is VERY linear and not much changes around you as you complete the game, high or low chaos. I never really felt like i accomplished anything as i played though the game three times. Imo they focused too much on little crap and not enough on the big things, like the story, characters and what you could actually do in the game. It left me wanting too much.....this is not meant to start a flame war, just me giving my two sense.

That's odd. To me, I thought the story and characters were amazing in that game. The only problem I really had with the game was that I felt like the ending was slightly lacking and could have been better. And ended the game still feeling incredibly accomplished. But maybe it was because I pre-ordered Dishonored because I saw it was by Bethesda and thought it looked pretty cool and didn't really know what to expect with the game, and in all honesty wasn't expecting all that much from it, and then I got it and it blew me away with how great it was. So maybe it's just because we had different viewpoints going into the game?

i think that may have a lot to do with that. I have a bad habit of doing that with games these day, getting too hyped. What really got me was how short it was. I did indeed play through the game multiple times but you can only go through the same story so many times before it gets old and bored the crap out of you. I guess that must be my problem, i like to have more of a story in a game.

I made the mistake of getting way too hyped over Skyrim, and then it was a let down to my expectations, even though it's an amazing game. So I know how you feel. But in regards to Dishonored, I got it the day it came out and just beat it tonight, and I'm certain it took me over 20 hours to beat it. So I didn't feel it was short. But I did try to do everything the non-lethal way, and took my time exploring nearly every inch of the maps, except in the last couple missions, where I was too interested in the story to take too much time exploring. But I thought the story was really amazing and interesting. And I can't wait to play through it a second time, as an actual assassin.

I find this interesting. It's a game that lack meat, and yet somehow, it's also a game you play thru three times in less than a week. That's at least 35 hours or so, personally, I don't think that's lacking meat at all. It's a pretty good amount of time spent with a single player game.

I was surprised on how much I enjoyed it.

Please note the DLC button on the main menu.

Corvo's Story is evidently just beginning

No it isn't. The developers have confirmed that Corvo's story is over with this version of the game. If there is future DLC it will be with another protagonist.

As to the thread at hand, I don't necessarily agree but I don't disagree either. Right from the start the narrative was the only thing that could suffer. The game's length didn't matter as well since we were expecting a well paced story. We did't get both. I was both disappointed but relieved as well.

With the existence of this game Arkane and Bethesda have shown that they can make the right decisions and that they can push out quality content. The part in which I don't agree is that focusing on the little things was a bad move, it wasn't. I always said that the game was way too rushed and that it releases too soon after a 3 year pre-production period. That is probably why most things lacked depth and everything felt rushed.

All and all, it still has superb gameplay but sadly it's no Deus Ex, no matter how much I wanted it to be and even surpass it.

I was very satisfied. That said, I haven't started a second playthrough yet, so I'll see how I feel about it after another go.

I think you have to understand what kind of game this is, though. It's more of a game game, and less of a pick-your-story game. It isn't Alpha Protocol, it's Half-life. It isn't Mass Effect, it's Portal. The emphasis is on how well everything's been crafted, not on how many different options there are.

I'd say the levels start off in the non-linear way we were hoping, but once you get enough runes to actually unlock proper powers, the levels become much more linear; still less than most games, but they no longer had that sense of freedom from the earlier levels.

Some of the later levels are pretty linear ... especially that section after Daud (I really like the mission up until you leave Daud, however) ... but the powers don't have anything to do with it. It's just the actual levels' design.

But now that you bring up powers, I would have preferred it, actually, if we'd been even more restricted in how many (active) powers we could acquire in a single plathrough.

Which is why I limited myself to three (active) powers.

After following all the interviews, videos, etc. I knew exactly what I was getting. Dishonored met all of my expectations, only exceeding them in performance and replay value.

The game is exceeding my expectations as well. I feel like there is so much I missed on my first play-through. I can't wait to try a Ghost only play-through without killing anyone.

I don't really follow games pre-release anymore; I like going in fresh, not knowing what I'm going to find, so everything is a surprise. That really helps avoid over-hyping games and building expectations so unrealistic that you just end up disappointing yourself. It can also help those who see every interview or pre-release trailer as a "promise" rather than as product marketing, and then get indignant when the developer "fails" to live up to their "promises."

That goes hand-in-hand with avoiding pre-orders and other "pay for something that doesn't exist yet" schemes like season passes for DLC and the like, though. I only started paying attention to Dishonored about two days before it was released, and so far I've been pleased with it. There are some issues, of course, but for the most part I went in expecting an old-school first-person stealth game in the vein of Thief 2, and so far it's lived up to (or exceeded) those expectations.

Oh that's interesting. I wonder if it's possible to introduce a character creator so we could play as female if we want - and I want. My copy of DisHonored has finally arrived and I have it all loaded up for tonight....I can't wait!

True but if the publishers know how to present the product of the developers, and if you are able to see quality, then you can make a smart purchase. And thank god there are more people who love Thief 2

Sure, it's definitely possible to follow a game through years of development and not go into it with unrealistic expectations - I just don't find that it's very useful for me to do so. I have friends that do that - post every new screenshot or trailer a year before we even know a release date - and I'm not knocking it, just saying that's not how I roll.

That said, there are a couple indie games I'm following while they're in development (Tom Francis' "Gunpoint" and Gaslamp's "Clockwork Empires") but I'm mostly reading their developer blogs to see their thoughts on design rather than hanging on every word as a 'promise.' For some reason it's easier and more fun with indie games, IME.

I completely understand. Normally I am the same way, but Dishonored showed promise and I wanted to follow the development process. It wasn't long either, a year + a few months since the initial announcement.


First off, I want to say that it is extremely rare to hear those words these days. I too do the same with those games and hope they will show quality when they are released. And yes, it is easier with indie games, and thankfully we are receiving more quality games like those.